What A Parent Is
by Fireena
Summary: Short little parental oneshot between our favorite sniper and young state alchemist. This is my entry for Sense Marauders oneshot contest, if I've gotten it in on time. otherwise, I dont have a good summary. Edward gets sick and Hawkeye takes care of him


**So the writer Sense Marauder who writes With Hope, Winry is holding a oneshot contest and while it is cutting it a little close I'm hoping this will get in on time to be considered. Either way though, its a little parental one-shot between a pairing I haven't seen a lot of; Hawkeye and Edward. Anyway, hope you enjoy and you should go read Sense Marauders stuff too. **

It was a rare moment when Edward went anywhere without Al, even rarer when he went with someone else, but the mission had called for total and complete discretion. Due to that, Mustangs plan was to send both Riza Hawkeye and Edward to the mountains, posing as brother and sister on a vacation. What could be more discrete than that?

What they hadn't counted on was for them to get trapped in a small run-down cabin in the mountains during a blizzard, or for Edward to get sick.

The mission itself went fine and the police had taken the man away and offered the two a ride back to town, but both knew they had a job and part of that job was to make sure everything relevant was reported, including what they found at the hiding place of the criminal they had just caught. That's when the storm hit.

They walked in the cold, unforgiving ice and snow for maybe half an hour, both dressed for the weather, but taking into consideration his automail, and the fact that the boy barely rested for ten minutes when not on a train, let alone long enough to replenish his strength, it really wasn't a surprise when he tripped over a rock that he couldn't see with his blurred vision.

"Are you alright?" Hawkeye asked, backtracking a few steps to help up the young alchemist.

"Y-yeah..." Edward replied, getting to his feet and wavering a bit, "ugh...I-I don't feel so good..." he muttered.

Right there. Those words set off alarm bells to the older woman. She may not know Edward Elric /well/, but she did know that he hated showing any kind of weakness, including admitting when he didn't feel 100%.

The boy blinked several times before he started walking again and she followed. It wasn't ten minutes later when they could finally see the run down building that Edward suddenly lost consciousness and fell back.

"Major Elric?" Hawkeye asked, rushing forward and kneeling by the unconscious boy, shaking his shoulder to try and rouse him, "Major, can you hear me?" when she got no response she picked up the boy, stumbling for a second under his weight before continuing through the storm to the building.

She finally walked inside and shut the door with her foot and sat Edward, who was finally starting to come back around, in a chair and removed his soaked coat. Luckily the rest of him was pretty dry and she grabbed a towel to dry his hair before lying him down in the bed in the next room. She took off his boots and covered him with a blanket before feeling his forehead. Her hands may have been somewhat chilled by the outside air, but she had felt warm skin after being in the cold before, and right now, the boy was far warmer then that.

"God, you're burning up!" she said softly.

Edward moved to sit up, "I-I'm alright..." he said.

"Major Elric, I must ask you to please lie back down," Hawkeye told him, pressing back on his shoulder so he would.

"Heh, you don't need...To treat me so formally Lieutenant...That's not why I became a State Alchemist after all..." he told her, his breaths starting to come shorter and more frequently.

"Very well, but the same to you, and as I said, you need to lie down. You're sick." she replied.

"I just need a few minutes...To catch my breath and I'll be fine..." Edward assured her, closing his eyes.

Hawkeye looked out the window and saw the storm was getting worse. She could only think that this wasn't going to be the worst the boy got. Things were going to get worse.

She stood up and made a fire in the old fire place and collected some snow in an old pot before putting it on the fire. She then melted some snow in her hands for water since there was none and certainly no plumbing and found an old rag which she dipped in the water. She wrung it out and set the cold rag on Edwards forehead. He jerked away at first but she held fast and after a moment he settled, finding comfort in the icy coolness on his far too warm skin.

Hawkeye smiled. At least she could offer him some comfort. For now.

*Line*Break*

Edwards fever was getting worse. He was now shivering like mad and felt icy cold one minute and the next he was feeling far too hot. Right now was a moment when he actually accepted the blankets on him as he felt cold. Sadly, his fever didn't seem to be going anywhere.

"L-Lieutenant..." Edward stuttered, "w-we need to get out of here...Th-the storms getting worse..."

"You aren't going anywhere, Edward." Hawkeye told him firmly, getting up to change out the cloth.

"I-I'm fine...I can walk..." he said, sitting up.

"No you can't." she told him, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Edward continued to get up but then stopped as the world started spinning wildly out of control. His hands clenched the blankets as he tried to keep himself steady, "wh-wh-whoa...oh no...no...no I'm...I'm fine..." he stammered, lying back down, eyes shut to keep the room from spinning more. "J-just give me a minute...I'll be fine, we need to go..." he insisted.

"Forget it, you aren't going anywhere under your own power." she looked around for something to use and then spotted it. An old communications radio. She may not be Master Sergeant Feury, but she knew the basics. She could only hope this would work.

*Line*Break*

Mustang was sitting in his chair, staring at the idly falling snow when the voice crackled over the radio receiver.

"...Us...Ang...Colonel...Musta...An you...Me?"

The Colonel frowned and walked over and fiddled with a few dials until he could hear the other person more clearly, "Hello? Colonel Mustang speaking."

"Colonel, It's Lieutenant Hawkeye."

"Lieutenant? Are you alright?" he asked, worried for his most trusted subordinate.

"I'm fine, it's Edward Elric, Sir...We found the target and he was apprehended, but we got caught in a storm and he's gotten sick."

"How sick?" the colonel asked.

Hawkeye looked over at the young boy who was talking, almost crying, in his sleep. "please..." he moaned, "Al please, I-Al, no...please Al...I...don't...ahh!"

"It's really bad..." she said, "we're at the targets hiding place and the storm is getting worse. He can't walk and I'm afraid I can't carry him."

"Don't even try. I don't even want you to think about walking through that blizzard, and that is a direct order Lieutenant!" he barked, knowing she would never go against him.

"Understood, Sir." she replied immediately, "but Sir, I must request that you stay there. Do not fight your way through a blizzard. We'll be fine here."

"I know you will. Just make sure FullMetal doesn't die, he's enough of a pain without the paperwork that would come along with his death. And you tell him I said so, alright?"

"Alright, I'll keep him alive." she replied.

"And you stay safe as well. For me."

"Alright Sir."

*Line*Break*

All throughout the evening Hawkeye took care of the young alchemist. He woke up a few times and she gave him some water, but most of the time was spent with her placing a cool cloth to his forehead and his restless sleep. Several times he cried out in his sleep, for Al, for their mother, and various other people as well. The blonde sharpshooter couldn't help but feel useless to do anything since he didn't seem to be getting any better and in fact only seemed to get worse as the night wore on.

Finally though, after several hours, Ed began to calm down. His cries for help or moans of discomfort stopped and he finally slept. And when he slept, so did she.

Riza awoke in the morning in an unfamiliar bed with unfamiliar surroundings. As she looked around and rolled onto her back she saw a vaguely familiar figure, and the previous nights events came back to her. She sat up and leaned over to feel the young alchemists forehead. He was still too much too warm to be healthy, but at least it dropped to the point where his dreams weren't attacking him like they were the previous evening.

Hawkeye stood up to tend the fire and when she turned around she saw Edward sitting up, staring at her with a slightly confused expression on his face, "what happened?" he finally asked, blinking a few times to get the sleep and fogginess from his eyes.

"You got sick yesterday after we caught and apprehended Holman. This is his hideout. We got stuck here because of a blizzard." she told him, looking out the window, "the snow has stopped so someone may come and find us, with any luck." she turned to the young alchemist, "how are you feeling anyway?"

"Fine." he said. He stood up but as soon as he did he grabbed onto the wall and pressed a hand to his forehead, "not again..." he moaned, sinking to his knees.

"What happened?" Hawkeye asked, walking over and kneeling down on one knee beside the sick alchemist.

"Room's spinning..." Edward muttered. After a moment he lowered his hand, still breathing rather heavily, "We should go, now that the snow's stopped. We don't know if it'll start up again so it's best to go before it does."

"You can't even stand." Hawkeye said simply, "it'll be alright, we can wait here."

"The colonels gonna be pissed off no doubt..." Edward muttered, reaching one hand up and behind to pull himself back onto the bed.

"He's worried. He said not to do anything that would result in your death." Hawkeye replied.

"I'm not going to die from a cold, or from walking down the mountain into town." Edward said with a sneeze.

"No, but you may pass out, and I can't carry you down if you do."

"But I-"

"The answer is no, that comes straight from the Colonel himself." Hawkeye told him firmly.

Edward looked as though he were going to object again, but the dizziness increased and he folded forward.

Hawkeye stepped forward, catching the boys shoulders and straightening the teen to find that he had fallen unconscious again. Touching his forehead as she lay him down revealed that his fever had increased again.

"Reckless kid..." she muttered, maneuvering Edward onto the bed and covering the boy with a blanket, and looking out the window. It started snowing again, "I hope you get better soon. I don't know how much longer we can stay here." there were no provisions as she had checked earlier, and if Edwards fever didn't break soon he would be in trouble.

*Line*Break*

It was so cold, so why was he sweating? Where was he? He couldn't see, it was so dark. Wait, his eyes were closed, so maybe that was why it was so dark. He forced his eyes to open and slowly began to make sense of his surroundings.

The room was dark, but there was a little bit of moonlight trickling in through the dirty window. He sat up and looked around the room and saw, sitting in a chair, arms crossed on the bed with her head lying on it, was Lieutenant Hawkeye, sleeping soundly.

Edward felt guilt tug in his chest. She didn't appear to be well rested and he knew it was his fault. Him and his stupid cold. He stifled a cough before sneezing three times in quick succession.

The rest of the room was dusty and he wondered for a moment as to why he was there before remembering the mission. They had come to this building to investigate for signs that the man had been conducting illegal experiments involving human transmutation, which was the whole reason Edward had been sent. He sat up and got out of the bed and walked slowly and unsteadily to the back room of the small building and started searching through documents. After he picked up the first few and started reading in the soft moonlight, a difficult task that usually resulted in giving him a headache and one that Al seemed insistent that it would result in a future need of glasses, it didn't occur to him that he should sit down. Which was why some undefined amount of time later after several documents were read, Edward fell back against the bookshelf. The heavy bookshelf laden with books started to tip forward and without thinking Edward clapped his hands and pressed them to the floor.

Hawkeye awoke to a loud crash and grabbed her gun hidden in her boot before going into the back room, gun aimed to shoot any intruder that may be lurking. However there was no intruder, just a bookshelf fallen forward onto two shaky structures shaped like hands, the books surrounding the blond haired boy sitting in the middle, panting heavily and looking like he was fighting hard not to pass out or be sick.

One of the structures crumbled a bit and Hawkeye put her gun down for a second before pulling the boy out from underneath the large unstable structure of the two smaller ones and the bookshelf and close to her chest, just in time for them to both watch the entire thing collapse.

"What on earth were you doing?" Hawkeye exclaimed, "you're in no position to be up and about, or to be performing any alchemy!" all thoughts of rank and disrespect for a higher officer were out of her mind, "you could have died!"

"The...Mission...His research shows...He was messing around with human transmutation...We have the proof now, s-so we can go now, right?" he asked, exhaustion finally taking over and making him fall limp in her arms.

She hefted the boy up into a better position and carried him back to the bed, laying him down and covering him up, placing another cool cloth on his forehead before going back for her gun. She went back into the room and saw that the boy was crying in his sleep. "m-mom..." he whimpered, "I-I'm sorry, please...Please don't...M-mom..."

Without thinking, Hawkeye took his hand in her own and was surprised that the boy latched on so quickly and so tightly. "I'm sorry...Please don't hate me for...For what I did..." he begged, whimpering again when there was no response, "mom please..."

On a whim Hawkeye spoke, " it's alright honey..." she whispered, "I don't hate you, because a mother could never hate her children. To love their child unconditionally, no matter what, and to want to protect them always; that is what a parent is."

"But...I messed up everything so bad..." Edward cried, his grip growing tighter.

"It's alright. You made a mistake, that's all. I don't hate you, and neither does Al, or Nina or anyone else." she told him.

Edward relaxed so fully for a moment Hawkeye thought he had died. She had never seen so much tension simply melt away at once. "thank you mom..." he said after a moment, "thank you so much..." and with that he fell asleep.

"You're welcome Edward," Hawkeye said with a smile, resting her head on the bed and going to sleep as well.

In the corner of the room, a chestnut haired woman with a purple dress and white apron watched with a smile on her face, "thank you lieutenant." she said softly, knowing no one could hear her, "for taking care of my baby. For taking care of both my babies."

*Line*Break*

The sun broke through the dirty window and landed squarely in Hawkeyes eyes. She sat up with a yawn and looked at the young boy. He was still sick, but far more relaxed than she had ever seen him before. She sighed sadly. They needed to get off this damned mountain and into town, but she couldn't leave Edward alone and he couldn't walk.

There was a knock on the door that woke Edward up. He sat up wonderingly, "who's there?" he asked the lieutenant, "you expectin' someone?"

"No, I'm not." Hawkeye replied, picking up her gun and walking to the door. Slowly opening it to reveal several men at the door, "what do you want?" she demanded.

"Are you Miss Lieutenant Hawkeye?" the man in front asked, "we were told by a..." he pulled out a piece of paper and looked at it, "Colonel Roy Mustang to come for you and the FullMetal Alchemist and escort you into town. He's at the inn currently waiting for you two to return."

Edward came up behind her, "who is it?" he asked.

"You must be the FullMetal Alchemist, hm, your fever seems to be pretty high. Ma'am we ought to hurry before another storm hits." another man said.

"We're getting out?" Edward asked, his flesh knee choosing that moment to give out on him.

"Woah!" the second man exclaimed, grabbing Edward before he hit the ground, "do you two has everything?" he asked.

"Just a minute. Oh, and if any of you try anything," Hawkeye cocked back her gun, "you won't be able to get far enough fast enough."

One of the men laughed nervously, "I assure you Miss, this is no trap." he said as he followed her inside. He watched as the lieutenant gathered several files and Edwards coat that had dried over the last couple nights and within a few minutes they started making their way down the mountain. Two of the four men helping Edward, one leading in front and the fourth walking alongside the lieutenant. It took about twenty minutes, according to Edwards watch, to get to the car and another half hour to get back into towns inn where Mustang was indeed waiting for them. Hawkeye steppe out and saluted, "thank you, Colonel for sending up some aide. Our mission was a success nearly in its entirety." she handed him the stack of folders which he then passed off to Havoc who took them inside before looking at the blond now getting out of the vehicle.

"Holy shit, FullMetal!" Mustang commented, looking at Hawkeye, "when you said he was sick, I-You look like hell, FullMetal!"

Edward glared at his commanding officer, "well, nice to see you too, Colonel." he shot back. He stepped to the side to allow the other men to get out of the vehicle while standing against it.

"Seriously, FullMetal, you look like death warmed over." he said, walking over and placing an unloved hand on the teenagers forehead, "and you're burning up! Get inside."

"I'm a little sick..." Edward admitted, stepping forward to get to the warmth and safety of the inn.

"There's a doctor waiting in the room already, and I thought I told you no getting sick." Mustang lectured when they went inside.

"You said no dying. So technically getting sick was an option." Edward said sarcastically.

Hawkeye smiled before looking at the men who had traversed the mountain for them, "thank you very much." she said.

"It's the least we could have done. You saved our town after all. Thank you." one of the men replied, "we are in your debt." and with that they left.

Hawkeye went inside and it didn't take long to find Mustang and Edward. The doctor was trying to convince them Edward should stay in the hospital for a while, something to which Mustang agreed, while Edward kept insisting he was fine and that he'd be better by morning. She smiled. It looked like things were going to be just fine.

*Line*Break*

They stayed a few days until Edwards fever broke and he was completely well before going back. They arrived at the station late in the evening and Mustang and Havoc had already left, leaving Hawkeye and Edward behind. Edward had been quiet the past few hours and finally, face red with embarrassment, looked Hawkeye dead in the eye, "thank you for what you did," he said to her, "taking care of me and...And for what you said. You'll make a great mom one day." and with that he hugged her tightly and then left.

Hawkeye stood there, stunned for a moment. She had been called many things over the course of her life; a sharpshooter, lethal, a killing machine, but a mother she had not. She had not thought it possible for someone like her to be a mother, yet, maybe one day, she could be...

**So? what'd you think? I think parts of it were a bit rushed but I was hoping to get it posted in time for it to be considered. Anyway, I think it turned out alright. Reviews are always welcome :D**


End file.
